Deployment No. 3

I can't believe it's been almost five years since I last posted on this blog. I stopped writing after my son David's first deployment in Iraq four five months in 2007.

He went back to Iraq in 2009-2010 for an entire year, but I felt less need to write about it. Maybe I felt that I was an experienced parent now of a soldier; maybe I had other things to worry about. Maybe I had the delusion he was somehow safer. As an S-2, he was in an administrative position and thus stuck behind a desk most of the time -- unlike his first deployment when he patrolled Baqubah as a second lieutenant.

But a lot has changed in 4-1/2 years. He's now a captain. He's now married -- Dec. 17, 2011 -- to a lovely woman whom our family adores. He and his wife have bought a house in North Carolina.

And now, he has deployed to Afghanistan.

As a supportive parent, I'm not supposed to express fear or concern. It's bad for morale. I'm supposed to be cheerful, loving and keep up the family spirits.

However, ever since I knew he was going to this ancient land, I've had a bad feeling about this one. Nothing specific -- I'm not pyschic -- but just a lot of fears.

Less than month before his departure, some Army clunkheads burned pages of Koran. Yes, they thought they were trying to stop secret communications between prisoners, but it didn't take much in the way of brains to notice how the Afghans revere their Korans. What it took was some cultural awareness and an Arabic translator before you burn the trash.

So as has happened in the past, many Afghans took to the streets in protest. Two Afghans killed four American military men in two separate incidents. Now, an American soldier out of JBLAM-Joint Base Lewis and McClaren - went door to door in three villages near Kandahar and killed at least 15 people, including nine children.

As an American, I am ashamed that our occasional outburst of armed insanity have occurred in Afghanistan.

As a parent of a soldier in Afghanistan, I am afraid -- very afraid -- for my son's safety.

Yes, he tells me he will be safely behind blast walls and not traveling in the field. But as much as I love him, I know he doesn't tell me or his wife everything that happens. Soldiers don't, if they love their families.

This is going to be a long six months.